Woman pleads not guilty in killing of sex offender

BATON ROUGE - A woman accused of killing a Zachary man who court records showed molested her when she was a child has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges.

On Tuesday, a grand jury handed up second-degree murder indictments for Brittany Monk and her fiancé, Jace Crehan, who aided Monk in the killing of Robert Noce. Investigators said the couple stabbed and strangled Noce before stuffing his body into a 55-gallon drum in his kitchen.

Court records showed that Noce, who was Monk's stepfather, began assaulting her in 2012 when Monk was 15 years old. According to the records, Monk's mother left after Noce raped her and he then began molesting the teen, giving her sedatives before assaulting her.

Noce was charged with rape but pleaded guilty to the lesser penalty of carnal knowledge of a juvenile. He was on supervised probation when he was killed.

The charges against Monk and Crehan carry mandatory life sentences if they are convicted.